Overcoming Capacity with Innovation

To combat the ongoing labor shortage and bring innovation to the forefront, Colorado-based Paragon Concepts has invested in some major technological advances meant to challenge ongoing industry concerns. The company is nearing completion of its Winstore installation for the new Selco ROS Robot Saw—a system that is designed to be equivalent to four full-time employees. “We’ve been struggling the last 18 months with the demands on our factory. We’ve been running 125%, six days a week,” said founder Isaiah Rozek. “It forced us to go on a journey to see how we could overcome this. Hiring people has been almost impossible and we had to figure out how to overcome capacity. So, we chose Biesse's Selco ROS robotic saw.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30 ›

Materials Update

BY JOHN STEIN, VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, PARAGON CONCEPTS

Between our three shops, we buy a lot of melamine. Our finished work is so small that it doesn’t even register on our sales meter. We have been touting the textured TFL & HPL horn for quite some time. Laser edge banding still hasn’t gone viral—yet. But, we see things starting to change. For example, we have been a big proponent of Stevens Industries and the Stevenswood line of TFL materials. Their colors are awesome, and the quality of their sheets stand out. We have also seen a continual improvement in texture quality. You can see that they are constantly evaluating their game. We sell a lot of doors on their stuff. Just recently, Stevens started stocking matching laser edge banding for their TFL library. This is a profound statement for three reasons: 1. The adoption of laser is now reaching the sheet goods manufacturer level. This will start the steam roller moving forward at an even greater pace. 2. Stevens is acutely concerned about the end product, namely boxes and door fronts. This validates the argument that laser is far superior to any glue solution, including PUR. 3. Finally, it says that organic demand has picked up enough to motivate a major TFL player to enter into the edge banding market on scale. To the shop, this means one thing. If you are not running laser (and who is), you will be at a competitive disadvantage before long. The quality mandate continues to build as the textured materials keep improving. Pressure will soon be there, and you will find your customers asking for it. What to do? We have more than $1 million in edge banders. Those things are crazy expensive, and we haven’t seen economies of scale yet. Even the tape costs are high compared to glue. The obvious answer for us (we are holding the pen) is to outsource your doors. The boxes will be glue for lots of reasons so hold onto your bander. But, the doors will adopt sooner or later. It’s totally up to you as to when. Lead or follow.

The first to bring Biesse’s robot saw in North America, the company expects more than a 40% increase in cut production. And, according to John Stein, Vice President of Business Development for Paragon Concepts, Winstore is what makes the process truly possible.

“Without Windstore, you have to feed the yellow arm manually,” Stein said.

The system allows users to stack seven piles of sheets a hundred high. Winstore knows where each color is and shuffles the deck at will to give materials for the next project cut. The saw cuts, labels and stacks each project.

“It’s the loading mechanism for the sheets that the robot cuts. You have seven piles of sheets up to 100 high that Winstore catalogues. So, when that job comes, it knows where to go get the sheet.”

The idea is that the system continuously feeds sheets to the robot who then cuts, labels and stacks the piles of cut pieces. Together, they can run non-stop (conceptually).

“It is super exciting to see our Winstore completing installation,” added Stein. “We were supposed to have the Selco ROS robot saw and Winstore operational May 1. No doubt that production has felt the impact. Lead times are not just a materials issue these days. Biesse couldn’t get visas for their team to enter the States and complete the installation.

“And, the robot and Winstore don't get COVID! After three rounds of battling that in the factory, we know that this is a big move for us,” Stein added.

“It is amazing technology. Continual production improvements are always on our mind. We know that this will have a super-positive impact on our own lead times.” s p